WELL, RECUUUSE ME!

Sessions: I’ll step aside from probe of Trump campaign ties to Russia

“I should not be investigating a campaign I had a role in,” Attorney General Jeff Sessions said Thursday, adding that he was “as honest and correct as I understood at the time” in his confirmation hearings.

WASHINGTON — Attorney General Jeff Sessions denied misleading the Senate about meetings he had with a Russian official, but said he’d recuse himself from any investigations of ties between the Trump campaign and Russia.

It was also revealed that Sessions paid for travel expenses surrounding one of his sitdowns with the Russian envoy with his own campaign funds, casting doubt on his claims that he was acting in an official capacity, the Wall Street Journal reported.

“I have recused myself in the matters that deal with the Trump campaign,” he said at a hastily organized press conference Thursday. “I should not be investigating a campaign I had a role in.”

President Trump told reporters at a separate event that he had “total” confidence in his AG, but hadn’t been aware of Sessions’ two meetings with Russian ambassador Sergey Kislyak.

Asked if he thought Sessions had told the truth during his confirmation hearing in January when he claimed he “did not have communications with the Russians,” Trump said, “I think he probably did.”

Sessions’ news conference was held to stanch the bleeding from a Washington Post report Wednesday that Sessions met Russia’s ambassador twice during the heat of the 2016 campaign — despite his statement under oath that he had not met any Russians. The revelation led to calls from some Republicans for Sessions to recuse himself from federal probes into Russian meddling — and calls from some Democrats that he resign.

Sessions tried to clarify his earlier remarks at the news conference.

“I never had meetings with Russian operatives or Russian intermediaries as part of the Trump campaign,” he argued, saying he’d been “as honest and correct as I understood at the time.”

But Sessions admitted he should have been more forthcoming.

“In retrospect, I should’ve slowed down and said I did meet with one Russian official a couple times — that would be the ambassador,” he said.

The news conference sought to pour water on a scandal that threatened to engulf his office and the Trump administration. But it wasn’t enough for Democrats, as many insisted he go a step further and appoint a special prosecutor.

Both of Sessions’ interactions with Kislyak — including a Sept. 8, 2016, meeting at Sessions’ office — came after cybersecurity firms had concluded that Russian intelligence agencies were behind cyber-hacking of the Democratic National Committee.

“Recusal is not good enough. Attorney General Jeff Sessions must resign now, and a special prosecutor must be appointed immediately,” committee Chairman Tom Perez, a former head of the Department of Justice’s civil rights division, said in a statement.

Sessions’ “narrow recusal and his sorry attempt to explain away his perjury are totally inadequate. He is clearly trying to maintain his ability to control the larger investigation into the sprawling personal, political and financial grip Russia has on the Trump administration,” said House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.). “He must resign immediately.”

Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.), who earlier in the day had called for Sessions’ resignation, didn’t go as far in his statement after the press conference, but said federal “regulations clearly require the appointment of a special prosecutor, and the administration shouldn’t ignore clear regulations a second time.”

But Republicans rallied around Sessions — including those who earlier in the day had called for him to move aside. Sen. Lindsey Graham of South Carolina called Sessions’ move a “great decision,” while Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley of Iowa said it was “the right thing to do” and dismissed calls for his resignation as “nonsense.”

In addition to his testimony, Sessions also responded with a terse “no” to a written question from Sen. Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.) that asked if he had been “in contact with anyone connected to any part of the Russian government about the 2016 election, either before or after Election Day.”

Sessions repeatedly fell back on the lawyerly phrases “I don’t recall” and “I don’t believe so” throughout the brief meeting with reporters, where he took just a handful of questions.

That included when he was asked if the campaign came up during his September one-on-one with Kislyak.

“I don’t recall but most of these ambassadors are pretty gossipy,” he said.

Sessions rejected the idea that either meeting might have been focused on the campaign, however, arguing they were tied to his official capacity as senator.

But he paid for travel expenses to the RNC convention, where he met

with Kislyak at a conservative forum, with campaign funds, not official Senate funds. And an attendee at the Heritage Foundation conference where the two spoke told the Wall Street Journal that Sessions remarks during a keynote speech focused on Trump’s trade policies.

“If he was truly there solely as a member of the Armed Services Committee, then he could’ve used his legislative account,” Larry Noble, general counsel at the Campaign Legal Center, a nonpartisan advocacy group, told the newspaper.

Sessions also maintained he’d already been in talks with Justice Department officials over whether he should step aside.

“I have met with the relevant senior career Department officials to discuss whether I should recuse myself” from any matters arising from the campaign, he said.

“Having concluded those meetings today, I have decided to recuse myself .”

He said Acting Deputy Attorney General Dana Boente will handle the investigation.

Trump — who earlier in the day said he didn’t see a need for Sessions to step away from the investigation — portrayed his lawman as a victim in a statement after the press conference.

“Jeff Sessions is an honest man. He did not say anything wrong. He could have stated his response more accurately, but it was clearly not intentional,” Trump said. “The Democrats are overplaying their hand. They lost the election and now they have lost their grip on reality. The real story is all of the illegal leaks of classified and other information. It is a total witch hunt!”

Trump has repeatedly denied that his campaign team had contact with Moscow and has dismissed the controversy as a “scam” perpetrated by “fake news” media.

But his former campaign manager, Paul Manafort, along with other top Trump associates, have reportedly been investigated for contact with Russia. His former National Security Adviser Michael Flynn was forced to resign after it was revealed he misled Vice President Pence about the nature of some of his phone calls with Kislyak between the election and inauguration.With Denis Slattery